Arsene Wenger has stepped up his feud with Sir Alex Ferguson by claiming the Manchester United manager is guilty of bringing football into disrepute.

The pair's long-running row was put back in the headlines on Saturday when Ferguson said his Arsenal counterpart was "a disgrace".

Wenger initially refused to bite back, saying only: "I will never answer any questions any more about this man."

But now he claims Ferguson should be punished by the Football Association.

The latest twist in the Ferguson-Wenger saga came on Saturday when the United boss, in an interview with The Independent newspaper, discussed the events after the game between the two sides in October.

United won 2-0 that day, at Old Trafford, but the game was followed by a now notorious food fight which saw Ferguson's clothes covered in soup and pizza.

The sides meet again at Highbury on 1 February.

"In the tunnel Wenger was criticising my players, calling them cheats, so I told him to leave them alone and behave himself," Ferguson said on Saturday.

"He ran at me with hands raised saying 'what do you want to do about it?'

"To not apologise for the behaviour of the players to another manager is unthinkable. It's a disgrace, but I don't expect Wenger to ever apologise, he's that type of person."

In England you have a good phrase. It is 'bringing the game into disrepute'

Arsene Wenger

Those allegations were put to Wenger after Saturday's game at Bolton, which Arsenal lost to slip 10 points behind Chelsea in the title race.

At first he said only: "I've always been consistent with that story and told you nothing happened.

"If he has to talk, he talks. If he wants to make a newspaper article, he makes a newspaper article.

"He doesn't interest me and doesn't matter to me at all. I will never answer to any provocation from him any more.

"He does what he likes in England anyway. He can go abroad one day and see how it is."

But later on Saturday, according to The Independent, Wenger spoke to a smaller group of reporters and expanded on his reaction.

"I have no diplomatic relations with him," the Arsenal boss is quoted as saying.

"What I don't understand is that he does what he wants and you (the press) are all at his feet.